Cloth-laying-up machine



March 11, 1924.

Filed Nov. 20,

M ISAACS CLOTH LAYING UP MACHINE Eilil IEi MU HE I 55 Patented Mar. 11, 1924.

MOSES ISAACS, OF NEVJ YORK, N. Y.

CLOTH-LAYING-UP MACHINE.

Application filed November 20, 1920.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Mosns ISAACS, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of New York, borou h of Manhattan, county and State of i ew York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Cloth-Laying-Up Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

Among the principal objects which the present invention has in view are: to lay up cloth preparatory to cutting the same to shapes, the cloth being spread alternately from opposite ends of the pile; to save time in the operation; to reduce the manual operations in the preparation of the pile; and to simplify and cheapen the construction of a machine operated for the purposes stated.

Drawings.

Figure 1 is a side view of a. machine constructed and arranged in accordance with the present invention, said machine being the machine, and means for operatively positioning the detent extraction thereof.

Figure 1 is a detail view partly in section of a fragment of the means for elevating and lowering the extraction, the section being taken as on the line H in Figure 3.

Description.

Heretofore machines have been employed for laying up cloth wherefrom sections of clothing are to be cut in bulk by means of a power-driven knife or other cutter. These machines have been easily assorted in two classes, the one class being adapted for laying the cloth from a single piece or bolt, folding the layers at each end of the runway or pile. The other class of machines have been adapted to lay the cloth from one end of the pile only. A characteristic of this class of machines has been the necessity of making a complete return trip of the machine for each ply or lay of cloth.

The present invention provides for handling two separate pieces of cloth similarly disposed but arranged to be laid up alternately and from opposite ends of the pile. To this end the present machine is Serial No. 425,323.

provided with oppositely disposed guide arms, each having a spreader rod 9 for spreading the cloth. The designating letters A and B and (1 have been used to distinguish the pieces or bolts of cloth and the extensions therefrom.

To accommodate the two pieces A. and B, the frame 10 has two platforms on which the said pieces are deposited. From each of the platforms the cloth is carried to a stripping roller 11, whence it passes between tension bars 12 and 13, the angular arrange ment of which produces a greater or less tension or resistance to the pull of the loose ends 14:.

Interposed between the tension bar 13 and the spreader rod 9 are guide rods 15. The stripping rollers 11 for the lower and upper pieces A and B are supported in bearing brackets 16 and 17 respectively. The brackets 16, as seen best in Figure 2 of the drawing, are pendent from the side bars of the upper platform or table, while the brackets 17 are goose-neck extensions from the standing frame 18.

The spreader rods 9 are xtended between small extractor plates 19 at opposite sides of the machine. The extractor plates 19 are pivotally mounted on rocking arms 20, and are spaced apart a distance greater than the width of the pile C. The plates 19 are designed to dislodge and carry weighted detent bars 21, which are employed for bolding the free end of the cloth, while it is being spread. To this end each of the plates 19 has a forwardly-extending finger 22. The said fingers extend below the detent bars 21 before the vertical edges 23 of said plates engage the said bars to slide the same from the pile of cloth to be thereafter supported on the fingers 22, as seen best in Figure 2 of the drawings.

The plates 19 are held in horizontal position by link arms 24:, which are connected by the pins 25 and 26 with the plates 19 and the frame 10 respectively. The outside arms 20 in each pair has a manipulating extension 27. The extension 27 is employed for elevating and lowering the extractor plates 19 and parts connected therewith.

'lo elevate the end of the arms 20 the extremity of the extension 27 is lowered. To accomplish this the eccentric cams 31 are each mounted on pin shafts 32. The pin shafts 32 are provided with a hand wheel 33, by which the said shafts may be rotated or be withdrawn from and introduced into any of the perforations 34 formed in the frame 10.

The shafts 32 extend througha perforation in the end of each of the link arms 35. The link arms 35 are pivotally mounted on shaft 36 which are rigidly connected to the extensions 27.

By reference to the drawings it will be seen that if the operator withdraws the pin shaft 32, using for that purpose the hand wheel 33, from any one of the perforations. 34, he may move the free end of the link 35 to a higher or lower position, and the cam 31 will then rest in the path of the ex tension 27 at a correspondingly higher or lower posit-ion.

It will also be seen that within the scope of the movement of the cam 31, the extension 27 may be rocked on the shaft 36, by the cam 31, as the hand wheel 33 is turned by the operator. As the free end of the extension 27 is raised or lowered the extractor plates 19 are correspondingly raised and lowered. In this manner the said plates 19 and the fingers 22 thereof are disposed with reference to the operating-positi011 of the detent bars 21, as the stack C increases in height.

The operation of the machine is as follows: Stacks A and B are disposed on their respective platforms or tables on the machine. An end of the cloth A or B is then placed under one of the bars 21. To accommodate the fingers 22 of the plates 19 to permit them to pass under the bars 21, wedge shaped boards 37 are placed on the spreading table beneath the bars 21 and the edges of the first few piles of cloth laid there. The boards 37 are sulhciently thick to permit the introduction of the fingers 22 of the extractor plates 19 under the bar 21 which rests on the said board. The free end of the cloth having been thus arranged, the operator grasps the frame by one of the handles 38 thereof, and carries it to the opposite end of the table or runway on. which the machine operating. The first stretch of cloth is cut at the desired length and the free end is permitted to dangle. The machine is then moved back toward the initial end of the lay until the spreader rod 9 and the free end of the cloth from the other piece is in position to be anchored by one of the detent bars 21 in register with the freshly made end of the first layer of the cloth. As at the opposite end a lifting board is introduced beneath the said freshly cut end of the first ply and the original end of the second ply and the second bar for anchoring the same is placed thereon. The detent having been thus placed in position, the machine is quickly returned to the initial end of the lay, and is moved beyondthe same, until the following spreader bar 9 has passed over the end of the original stretch of cloth.

It will be observed that as the machine has been returned to the initial end of the lay, the fingers 22 of the extractor plates 19 at the forward end of the advancing machine extend below the bar 21., which was holding the first lay of the cloth, and that the vertical walls 23 engage'and displace the bar 21 carrying it from theboard 37 and the cloth on which it rested, to rest up on the fingers 22 which thereafter carry the bar as the machine is moved.

The second length of the cloth is now severed by any suitable means to register with the end of the first layer of cloth. The operator now turns the hand wheel 33 associated with the plates19 carrying the weight 21 and rotates the same to force the cam 31 on the free end of the extension 27 which rocks the haft 36 and elevates the ends of the arms 20 carrying the plates 19. This raises the bar 21 above the level of the top of the cloth. returned until the following loose end of the piece of the cloth first spread coincides with the ends of the two layers previously disposed on the runway or table. At this point the operator turns the hand wheel 33 to remove the cam 31 from the eXten sion 27 which lowers the plates 19 and drops the bar 21 to rest on the newly laidend of cloth.

This series of actions is repeated until with the increasing height of the pile of cloth on the table or runway it becomes necessary to shift the working position of the plates 19 and parts connected therewith. This is accomplished by withdrawing the pin shafts 32 from the perforations 3a in which they have been'operating to the next lower perforations. The extension 27 is carried with the shaft 32 and the arms 20 connected therewith are correspondingly lifted so that the working position of the plates 19 connected therewith is disposed as desired. 7

It is obvious that should it be desired this machine may be employed for laying cloth from a single stack employing to this end only one of the spreader bars 9 and the arms 20 connected therewith. This would require that the machine be returned from what may be called the far end of the lay to the near or initial end of the lay without spreading the cloth, or in other words the clolth would be then spread from one end on y.

Claims.

1. A machine as characterized comprising a portable frame; a plurality of supports for separate supplies of cloth mounted on said frame; a plurality of guide frames for The machine is then delivering cloth from said supplies to opposite ends of said frame; a plurality of holding members for retaining said cloth at the free end of each layer thereof; and means carried by said machine for alternately removing and temporarily transporting said holding members from the opposite ends of said cloth to return the same to holding position for the ply thereof next to be laid.

2. A machine as characterized comprising a portable frame; a plurality of supports for separate supplies of cloth on said frame; a plurality of guide frames, each extended from one end of said portable frame for delivering clot-l1 from said supplies in opposite directions from said frame; a plurality of weighted members to rest upon and retain the free end of each ply of cloth while the same is being spread; and means carried by said frames for removing said weighted members from the cloth and from the end thereof toward which the machine is moving, said means embodying a plurality of hook-like members for extending beneath the ends of said weighted members for supporting the same when removed from said cloth.

3. A machine as characterized comprising a portable frame; a plurality of supports for separate supplies of cloth. on said frame; a plurality of guide frames, each extended from one end of said portable frame for delivering cloth from said supplies in opposite directions from said frame; a plurality of weighted members to rest upon and retain the free end of each ply of cloth While the same is being spread; means carried by said frames for removing said weighted members from the cloth and from the end thereof toward which the machine is moving, said means embodying a plurality of hook-like members for extending beneath the ends of said weighted members for supporting the same when removed from said cloth; and means for varying the operative position of said hook-like members in correspondence with the service disposition of said weighted members.

4. A machine as characterized comprising a plurality of spreading f 'ames for successively laying plies of cloth; a plurality of weighted members adapted for disposition on the free end of each ply as the same is spread; and a plurality of supports for said weighted members, one of said. supports being carried by each of said frames for removing the said supports from the ply cloth prior to the disposition thereon of the final end of each ply.

5. A machine as characterized comprising a plurality of spreading frames for successively laying piles of cloth; a plurality of weighted members adapted for disposition on the free end of each ply as the same is spread; and a plurality of supporting members having extended hooks and pushing shoulders for removing said weighted members from said cloth for disposition upon said hooks to be carried thereby away from said cloth.

6. A machine as characterized comprising a plurality of spreading frames for successively laying piles of cloth; a plurality of weighted members adapted for disposition 011 the free end of each ply as the same is spread; and a plurality of supporting members having extended hooks and pushing shoulders for removing said weighted memhere from said cloth for disposition upon said hooks to be carried thereby away from said cloth, to be returned thereby above the free end of the next laid ply for disposition thereon to anchor the same while the said ply is being laid.

MOSES ISAACS. 

